Aibel to build second phase of Johan Sverdrup onshore power plant

Norwegian oil major Equinor has awarded oil services company Aibel a contract to build the second phase of the onshore power plant for the Johan Sverdrup development.

Aibel said on Tuesday that Phase 2 of the plant, located at Haugsneset east of Kårstø, would contribute to secure the power supply from land to the further development of Johan Sverdrup.

The plant will also contribute to establishing the area solution for power from shore to the remaining fields on the Utsira formation (Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen, and Gina Krog). The Phase 2 building will be located next to the Phase 1 converter station also built by Aibel.

The Phase 1 plant will supply power for the four first platforms on the Johan Sverdrup field.

At Haugsneset, Aibel will build a new converter substation with double the capacity compared to the plant in Phase 1. The contract is valued at around NOK 500 million ($60 million).

Aibel’s EVP of field development and offshore wind, Nils Arne Hatleskog, said: “It is both a great honor and a major vote of confidence that we are now continuing our collaboration with Equinor and will play a key part in phase 2 of Johan Sverdrup. Here we are also building the P2 process platform and are thus making important contributions to more eco-friendly operations on the Norwegian continental shelf.”

This announcement follows Equinor’s submission of the Johan Sverdrup Phase 2 development plan to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on Monday.

Completion in 2021

The project will start at Aibel’s office in Asker. Work will gradually be moved to Haugesund for implementation of the project phase, and to Haugsneset for follow-up of construction.

The contract will be carried out in cooperation with Norconsult in Sandvika for detailed engineering of the actual building. Aibel itself is responsible for engineering of all technical disciplines, including a comprehensive ventilation system (HVAC) for cooling the converter facility.

Siemens will supply the actual converter components (HVDC), while Aibel will be responsible for all other deliveries, including the installation of the HVAC and HVDC facilities. Subcontractor contracts for erecting the actual building will be awarded in 2019 under Aibel’s contact with Equinor.

Aibel said that the work started immediately and would engage approximately 50-60 employees in the engineering phase in the first year. In the actual construction phase, which will start after the summer of 2019, around 120 Aibel employees will be involved.

The completed plant will be handed over to Equinor by the end of 2021.

Johan Sverdrup

The Johan Sverdrup project is located in the North Sea and will be developed in several phases. The first phase of the project which includes the development of four platforms, three subsea installations for water injection, power from shore, export pipeline for oil (Mongstad) and gas (Kårstø) is expected to start production in November 2019.

The second phase covers the development of another processing platform (P2), modifications of the riser platform and the field center, five subsea templates, in addition to power from shore to the Utsira High in 2022. Production start is expected in the fourth quarter of 2022.